🧮Salary-to-Rent Ratio

How the Raw Value Is Calculated

The raw value shows how many typical monthly rents are covered by the average monthly net salary. A value of 2.5 means the net salary equals roughly two and a half monthly rents. Higher values receive higher scores.

For the wage side, Nomadino uses its maintained average monthly net salary indicator in US dollars. This keeps the salary-to-rent ratio consistent with the salary ranking instead of calculating wages from a second, diverging source.

For the rent side, Nomadino uses a small 45 square metre one-bedroom apartment. The rent per square metre is built from 70% city rent and 30% non-central or rural rent. The simplified formula is: net salary divided by 45 times the weighted rent per square metre.

This weighting is deliberately practical for people moving to a country: city rents matter more because jobs, infrastructure and expat services are often urban. The non-central component prevents prime-city rents from fully defining the country value.

The rent basis comes from Nomadino housing-cost indicators for city and non-central or rural rent per square metre. These values are checked against Numbeo rent data, available housing-cost series, OECD housing-affordability data, Eurostat housing price and rent statistics, and regional comparators.

This indicator does not measure overall purchasing power or the full cost of living. Food, transport, energy, taxes, health insurance and other expenses remain separate indicators. It answers only the housing affordability question: how much rent does a typical net salary carry?

The score rises monotonically with the visible raw value. Below 1 monthly rent is very weak, around 1 monthly rent means tight affordability, 1.5 to 2 monthly rents is solid, 2.5 to 3 is good, and values around 4 to 5 monthly rents are very strong.